


Roots Deep, Branches High

by Chantress



Series: Across the Universe [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Genre: Gen, Inspired by Dreams, Trees, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-09
Updated: 2016-07-09
Packaged: 2018-07-22 13:17:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 250
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7440667
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chantress/pseuds/Chantress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some visions require illustration.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Roots Deep, Branches High

He spent the journey back to Coruscant drawing trees.

Or rather, _one_ tree. Sometimes the stark, bare-branched outline of it in winter; sometimes lush with summer leaves, with a family of birds nestled in a shady corner; sometimes overflowing with springtime flowers, petals drifting to the ground like tears; sometimes buffeted by the winds of autumn, bending to their caress as gracefully as any dancer. No matter the season, though, it was undeniably the same tree in every depiction.

Some of these drawings were mere sketches, capturing the essence of _treeness_ with only a few well-placed lines. Others he lavished with every possible detail, meticulously filling in the fine veining on each leaf, frowning over the nuances of texture on the bark.

Anakin was fascinated, of course; having grown up on a desert planet, his personal experience of trees was understandably limited. But that was not why Qui-Gon did this.

He had looked into the eyes of his own death on Tatooine. Loath as he was to admit it to himself, some part of him had recognized and accepted in an instant that that black-clad being would be the instrument of his eventual demise.

But in the same breath he had also seen, in some far-distant time and place, this tree beckoning him into its shade, its presence in the Force reaching out to him in welcome and... love.

And so, heart strangely light despite the knowledge of death he carried within it, he drew trees.

...Or rather, _one_ tree.


End file.
